A critical part of hiring people who can assist you in taking your company to the next level is being able to articulate what you need.

In his book, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, Colin Powell lists the traits he “treasures” (his word) in people who work with him. It’s a list of characteristics necessary in every field, military, civil service, non-profit or corporate. Powell looks for people who: Read More

You may think you are adept at solving problems in your organization, but are you certain you’re working on the real problem? In a survey of 106 executives from 91 companies, 85% agreed that their organizations are poor at problem diagnosis. 87% were concerned that this flaw carried significant costs. Translated that means that we frequently spin our wheels wasting significant time with little progress. Before we can solve problems, we need to determine what problems to work on!Read More

To anyone who hasn’t owned a business, the idea of entrepreneurship looks romantic: you can come and go as you please and direct the activities of other people. In addition, of course, you’re rich! After all, you do own your own business.Read More

In 1519 Hernan Cortes arrived in the New World with 600 men and 11 ships. His mission was to conquer the Aztecs and take control of their vast treasure. As legend tells us, some of his soldiers, fearful of the outcome of their venture, plotted to seize the ships in order to desert. Cortez got wind of the plot and gave the order, “Burn the ships!”

We used to do the whole big Christmas party and played games. One year an employee wrote a poem, “Merry Christmas to all, wherever you roam, you get us all drunk and you send us on home.” After that year we stopped the offsite parties. Now we do a Christmas dinner throughout the day (to accommodate three shifts) and lengthen the lunch hour on each. We also have an ugly sweater contest.Read More

I spent Christmas with family. It was a special time; we looked at old family photos and talked about grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles. I was surprised at how little I knew about some of my ancestors. Dad is 92 and was able to share names and stories about many of the “old-timers” in the pictures.